


Midas Touch

by Blasketgrl



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Fic number 2!, Ficlet, I don't know how people write long fic!, Speculation, s4 spec, spoilers through 4.21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 18:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6867964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blasketgrl/pseuds/Blasketgrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity's year has left her in need of seeking clarity, but before she does that she has one last thing to say to Oliver (and he to her).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midas Touch

He turned at the unexpected humming sound which accompanied the descending elevator, his pulse quickening. After the tumult of recent events he could honestly say there was only one person he could reasonably expect to see when the doors opened.

“Felicity.” Her name was past his lips before his brain fully registered her presence. That was probably why his voice sounded so damn _hopeful_. His lips tightened into a slight grimace. Her face whitened at the sound. Still she came forward. “I didn’t expect to see you before--”

“Yeah, I know what I said,” her hands and fingers twisted together as she walked slowly towards him. 

He had been making arrows and turned to lay down the one he held, quickly running his hands over his jeans to brush them off. He tracked her with his eyes as he met her halfway across the room reveling in the staccato sounds made by her heels. She looked, as always, amazing. Lesser beings would be crushed by what she’s endured, but here she was, defiantly put together. Up close, he recognized the look on her face, with her hair swept back and her peering at him earnestly through her dark frames he could almost see her, them, as they were two years ago. As if she were once again coming to him to tell him that he could be more than the sum of his past. Instead, the certainty in her blue eyes was selling a different story. 

“You’re still going.” It wasn’t a question. 

“I just needed--I just needed you to know, I mean. I was thinking over our conversation and I realized, that is, I think I forgot to tell you something.” She sighed and lifted a shoulder. “ And I mean, I could have texted… so you, know, this wouldn’t have been so awkward. But you know me, why be cool when you can be well...me,” she finished waving her hand up and down in front of her body, ending it tangled up in her ponytail until she was yanking the tip over her shoulder.

He paused, head tilted and barely breathed. Last night’s discussion playing on fast forward in his head. To be honest, it had looped there, the reason (well the main one) why he had yet to sleep and his exhaustion seemed now to be interfering with how well he could process what was happening.

“So, Noah?”

“Waiting for me. Well, meeting me. I mean, it’s not like I could leave him upstairs wandering around your old headquarters. Him being an escaped felon and all it’s not really wise for him to lurk in unsecure abandoned spaces. He’s kind of making me crazy with his paranoia about privacy, safety security-”

“Good.”

“Wow. I never knew such a positive word could sound so-”

“Forceful?”

“-belligerent”. His eyebrows lifted and he mentally took a step back. This conversation, seeing her at all, wasn’t supposed to happen and he was determined to make sure that the last memory she had before she left was going to be a good one. He needed to relax. He stilled the hand at his side and lowered his voice before speaking.

“Felicity, I get why you feel you need to go with him, I do. But that doesn’t make it safe. His paranoia, his ability to get lost and stay lost, that will help keep you safe too, so yeah. If I’m happy that he’s being difficult about covering his, _your_ tracks, then I’m not going to apologize for it.” Her lips quirked in what looked to be the beginning of a smile, but she lowered her head too fast for him to confirm it. Her hand ghosted up a hair's breadth from his chest. When she looked up, that same sad certainty was in her eyes. The hand changed course, and came to rest on his bare forearm causing him to tense again. 

“You know, I’ve always felt that there was a part of me that was lost when he left. That maybe if I understood him, I would understand myself better. I know the parts of me I get from my mother. It took me a very long time to find them because they weren’t the parts I was looking for. But what I’m able to do...the way I can rationalize doing what needs to be done regardless of the cost. That isn’t my mother.” Her hand dropped away at those last words and his instinctively chased it, caught it. She closed her eyes and, god, that little line between her eyes appeared and he would do anything to be able to smooth it away. She continued in a voice that was a steel as it was quiet, “I just need to know in terms of the rest of who I am...what part is my father and what do I have to own as my own dysfunction.”

He felt his heart break for her yet again, the falling pain in his chest fresh. He was struggling now to be calm for her, to not allow his feelings of helplessness, of being responsible for bringing her into this life overtake him. He wanted to simultaneously run away, hit something and crush her to him. He wanted to take away her pain, but all he could do was feel it. 

Which is why when he spoke to her it was difficult to hide the urgency, the intensity in his voice, “Felicity, you’re ability to make the unpopular but right decision is what makes you who you are. And because you are kind and giving in an unkind selfish world, others aren’t going to understand your decisions.” His thumb ran over the back of her hand soothingly, “Don’t let their judgement make you second guess yourself.” Her eyes fluttered open while he spoke and as he watched, her melancholy expression gave way to an incredulous laugh.

“God help me Oliver if you ever try to convince me that this has been a year of Felicity Making Good Decisions I WILL upload that dating profile I made for you.” Crap. How had he triggered loud voice? 

Her hand which had rested in his twisted free so she could rub it against her forehead. She turned and walked three steps before making an about face. Standing rigidly, eyes blazing, she began speaking hard and fast. 

“You of all people should understand, Oliver. That is what I came by to say today. Because I have been allowed to wield Great Power.” He could hear her speaking in capitals as she wound herself up, and her hands flew as she spoke. “I oversaw a multi-billion dollar company, had Dominion over lifesaving technologies. Had my fingers on the scale deciding the fate of the world. And I made Decisions, Oliver. Decisions that cost people everything.” Her voice broke treacherously on the last word. She inhaled deeply and pushed on. Oliver could see that it was coming at a cost. Whatever she was here to say. 

Her voice softened.

“So I am here because I realized that I also held great power over you. I tried to tell you once, at the casino. I was hurt. You hurt me and I lashed out. But I look at you, and I listen to you and I realized that I misused my Power. I didn’t just protect me. I hurt you because I could and that’s what I felt in the moment. Not to be cruel. I never wanted that. But I didn’t want anything in my life the way that it has turned out. You have to understand that. You have to understand that you are great, you are good, you are worthy of love and you have changed. Don’t let me ruin you the way I’ve ruined everything else.”

Her forehead puckered and she looked at the ground as though it was sprouting answers. “Oh God,” she said looking up, “I just realized it’s like I have the Midas touch except instead of gold everything I touch gets perverted. I mean not like that, this would be a very different conversation, less like an apology and more like a celebration, I mean right?”

“Felicity, what are you doing” She stopped and looked up at him, seemingly taken aback at the loud voice being turned on her. “I know you’re not here _apologizing_ to me for reacting to me hurting you.” As he spoke he walked towards her and as he got closer she backed away uncertain. 

“What do you mean? I came here to make sure, well, to try to undo some of the damage. To you, I mean. Because I’ve done so much damage that I can never really make better, but I was hoping that maybe, before I left that I could try to, I don’t know, minimize the damage?” And there, crowded behind her sadness and her guilt, was her uncertainty about going away with Noah.

He shook his head and chewed on his bottom lip, eyes darting, searching for a way to make her understand. He reached out slowly with both hands until they gripped her arms forcing her attention to him with a gentle squeeze. “Felicity, I understand the need to go away in order to find clarity. And I know from experience how hard it is to leave behind the people who have always tried to help you with that in the past. What I didn’t know was how difficult it is to be on the other side. To look at someone who has so much to give, who brings so much light into the world but who can’t see it in themselves. For years, you did that for me. So I’m going to say the one thing that helped me when I had to leave.” He offered her a small smile trying to say more with his eyes than with his words. It was a risk, but she was always worth the leap.

“Come back to me.”

She looked up at him, a tremulous smile on her lips. She attempted to wink at him and his stomach flopped as she managed to whisper softly, “I promise.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope if you read to the end you enjoyed! This was mostly me working through an end of season spec I can't get out of my head--that for some reason Felicity goes off with her father in an effort to find herself/save her sanity. 
> 
> Seriously. I have an idea for a longer work but I truly wonder if I have the stamina!
> 
> Anyway, this fic felt very talky, but it was my attempt to inject more dialogue as I think I skew into headspace too much when I write. Not sure that it was the most successful, but I feel as though I've learned a bit in the process. Hopefully it doesn't read too awkwardly. 
> 
> I did develop a new head canon. In my mind it is radiantly clear that Felicity, at some point in their journeys got irritated with him and created a faux match.com profile that she keeps threatening him with.
> 
> Find me at blasketgrl2.tumblr.com


End file.
